Quarantine (2008)

Director:

John Erick Dowdle

Writers (WGA):

John Erick Dowdle (screenplay) &
Drew Dowdle (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

On March 11 2008, the government sealed off an apartment complex in Los Angeles. The residents were never seen again. No details. No witnesses. No evidence. Until now.

Plot:

A television reporter and her cameraman are trapped inside a building quarantined by the CDC after the outbreak of a mysterious virus which turns humans into bloodthirsty killers.

Plot Keywords:

Television | Reporter | Cameraman | Television Reporter | Apartment

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Jennifer Carpenter	...	Angela Vidal
Steve Harris	...	Scott Percival
Jay Hernandez	...	Jake
Johnathon Schaech	...	George Fletcher
Columbus Short	...	Danny Wilensky
Andrew Fiscella	...	James McCreedy
Rade Serbedzija	...	Yuri Ivanov (as Rade Sherbedgia)
Greg Germann	...	Lawrence
Bernard White	...	Bernard
Dania Ramirez	...	Sadie
Elaine Kagan	...	Wanda Marimon
Marin Hinkle	...	Kathy
Joey King	...	Briana
Jermaine Jackson	...	Nadif
Sharon Ferguson	...	Jwahir

Also Known As:

Quarantined (USA) (working title)
Rec (USA) (working title)
Cuarentena (Argentina) (Peru) (Venezuela) [es]
En quarantaine (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Quarentena (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
Карантин (Russia) [ru]
Karanteeni (Finland) [fi]
Karantena (Croatia) [hr]
Karantiin (Estonia) [et]
Karantina (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Karantina (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
Kwarantanna (Poland) (poster title) [pl]
Quarantäne (Germany) [de]
Quarantena (Italy) [it]
Rec: The Quarantine (Japan: English title) (DVD title) [en]

MPAA:

Rated R for bloody violent and disturbing content, terror and language.

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44262) | UK:18 | Australia:MA | Canada:13+ | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | Canada:18A (Alberta/Manitoba/Ontario) | New Zealand:R18 | Ireland:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-18 | Malaysia:18SG | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | Peru:14 | Argentina:16 | Germany:16 | Brazil:16 | Portugal:M/18 | Chile:14 | South Korea:18 | Netherlands:16 | Spain:18 | Norway:15 | Italy:VM14 | France:-12 (with warning)

Filming Locations:

Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Andale Pictures

Trivia:

Remake of the Spanish movie [Rec] (2007).

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the United States, it is illegal for a law enforcement official to order someone not to film or photograph something.

Quotes:

Griffin: [camera is on him in the shower] I hope that has a wide-angle lens.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Queerantine! (2009)

Soundtrack:

My Kinda Lover

Not quite as strong as the original, but still very good.

There must have been comedians in the projection booth the night that some friends and I went to see a family friendly film. These particular friends tend to watch only light-hearted material and get upset for weeks whenever they see horror films or intense thrillers. They were totally unprepared for a 'Quarantine' trailer and it shocked them all so badly that we nearly had to leave and get our money back. Maybe it was because of their strong reaction that my interest in the film has stayed so high for the past several months.

This week I have seen both 'Quarantine' and 'Rec' the film that 'Quarantine' is a remake of. 'Rec' is not without flaws but it is a very solid and chilling horror film. 'Quarantine' is able to expand on several of the strengths in 'Rec' while falling into a few pitfalls of it's own. Both films are about a TV news crew taping a show about what a night in the life of a fireman is like. A seemingly routine call turns out to be something much more and the news crew is trapped in a quickly quarantined building.

Giving credit where it is due, 'Quarantine' kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the movie. It lures you in with a very relaxed opening ten minutes but once you reach the building and the cop in charge asks why the camera crew is there, the whole tone of the movie changes. The fun and games, the light-hearted banter is gone. We only realize how serious it is though when they enter the apartment of an injured old woman. For me the tension starts with the entrance to the apartment and never lets up. Each new segment that the TV crew starts filming holds potential terror. The set design and the lighting are terrific and 'Quarantine' walks a careful tightrope of character action. So often in horror films the audience is yelling with frustration at what characters on the screen are doing because it all goes against common sense. There is a little bit of that early on but 'Quarantine' does a better job of playing to the characters and their panic. Characters die not through naivety or stupidity as much as they do from inevitability and inescapability. The key performance comes from Jennifer Carpenter.

The film's greatest strength and weakness at the same time, Carpenter is the focus of the camera because of her role as the reporter and it isn't an easy part to play. She is solid for the majority of the film but terror essentially overwhelms her with ten minutes to go and she is reduced to a sobbing, shrieking, shivering bowl of jello. Would I or anyone else be any better in the situation that 'Quarantine' creates? Hard for me to say but probably not. The problem is that there were three primary acting choices for her to make in the final ten minutes: she could play it as a hysteric (which she does), she could play it as numbing down her fear like the cameraman does in order to try and escape, or she could have been so overwhelmed by her fear that she becomes a functional catatonic working on autopilot. Carpenter's choice is probably the 'truest' choice for how people would react. That doesn't mean that it is going to make for good drama. Her transformation from confident and outgoing to hysterical jabbering is so jarring that it feels forced instead of real. The camera man keeps telling her to calm down when they've reached a potentially safe room but she is far beyond the calming down stage and well into the years of therapy one instead. I found it to be just too much and actually pulled me out of the horror and towards comedy instead.

'Rec' felt a bit more organic and gritty than 'Quarantine.' The performances are decent in both but you feel less of a connection to the characters in 'Quarantine.' Many are clearly there to serve as fodder with no attempt to seriously develop them. 'Rec' does a much better job, particularly when the reporter interviews each of the buildings residents. The five minutes spent in filming those sequences gave more of a stake to the audience into the well-being of those characters. That never really takes off in 'Quarantine' and I regret that they didn't follow the lead of 'Rec'. One thing that I thought 'Quarantine' did a much better job of was in plot clarity and how they provided information. The clues to the source of what is going on are much more explicit and come very early in the movie. 'Rec' dropped a few hints for the viewer to put together but relies on the final five minutes to give the major clues about patient zero. What patient zero is spreading is clearer in the remake and I thought the clarity benefited the plot. Of course by the time you find out about patient zero, Carpenter's character is beyond being able to help provide the audience with anymore real analytical power. Don't blink or you'll miss everything you need to know.

I give the slight edge to 'Rec', but certainly recommend 'Quarantine' to horror fans. It's problems aren't severe enough to detract from a very decent effort.